Metering of value bearing indicia (VBI) in the form of postage indicia has been widely utilized for a number of years. In traditional scenarios, a postage metering apparatus was provided with a balance of postal value, originally stored in a mechanical vault and later stored in an electronic vault, for use in issuing individual postage meter stamps. Individual users could access the metering device to operate the device for issuing one or more postage meter stamps, provided sufficient postal value was available.
In more recent years, computer-based postage metering platforms have been provided. For example, the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,822,739 entitled “System and Method for Remote Postage Metering,” 6,889,214 entitled “Virtual Security Device,” 7149,726 entitled “Online Value Bearing Item Printing,” 7,233,929 entitled “Postal System Intranet and Commerce Processing for On-Line Value Bearing System,” and 7,243,842 entitled “Computer-Based Value-Bearing Item Customization Security,” the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose various computer-based platforms suitable for providing postage metering operation. Such systems have facilitated more widespread use and availability of postage metering systems. Moreover, such computer-based platforms have introduced features previously unavailable with the traditional postage metering systems.
For example, computer-based postage metering platforms have facilitated simultaneous or substantially simultaneous (i.e., appearing from the user's perspective to be simultaneous) access to a postage metering system by multiple users. As shown in the above referenced patent entitled “System and Method for Remote Postage Metering,” as but one example, network infrastructure provides multiple users with access to a same postage meter server. Accordingly, a single postage value balance may be shared by each such user. This configuration has been particularly well received in the business enterprise environment, wherein a plurality of employees of the enterprise require access to a postage value balance. Such user access may include users obtaining a single postage indicium or users obtaining a plurality of postage indicia. Batch processing of value requests is shown, for example, in the above referenced patent entitled “Computer-Based Value-Bearing Item Customization Security.”